In the Huntington Beach High School oceanography class, teacher Jayson Ruth has made connections with a number of companies and organizations to provide his students an incredible opportunity to study the endangered Western Snowy Plover and the California Least Tern.

These are two birds that live in the Bolsa Chica ecosystem and are also endangered.

Ruth is on the board of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust and says, "It all started with a simple idea. I wanted to use technology to merge together my deep respect for nature and the responsibility I have as a teacher to inspire my students to value the natural environment as well as the importance of preserving open spaces such as the Bolsa Chica wetlands and mesas."

As of this month, viewers have access to an online nest camera via the Bolsa Chica Land Trust's website at bolsachicalandtrust.org. The audio and video will be streaming all day and night for approximately the next two months.

Ruth provided the following educational goals:

Provide insight as to the lifestyle of these two threatened birds of Bolsa Chica.

Educate students of all ages of the indigenous inhabitants of the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve and the overall value of protecting this vital resource.

Provide many benefits to Department of Fish and Wildlife by enabling staff to track, record and analyze data in an entirely new approach.

Host a discussion board and blog so that visitors to the website will be able to ask questions and discuss the events unfolding at the nest site.

Provide a place where the public will be able to post questions about the birds' nesting behaviors, ecology, as well as general info about the Bolsa Chica ecosystems.

In securing this project, Ruth has made a number of connections to local businesses.

They include the following: Bolsa Chica Land Trust; Brian Pavloff of Variable Speed Solutions for his engineering and expertise; donations from Edison and Boeing; Kelly O'Reilly and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife; Mitch Mitchell of Trinnos Technology; Panzanti Home Mortgage; State Lands Commission; Surfline for rebroadcasting the nesting camera footage and Verizon Wireless.

Ruth is a great example of the type of teacher we have at Huntington Beach High School.

Our staff shares a passion for learning and is progressing to instill 21st century skills into many of their lessons. I want to thank him for contributing to this article, but more importantly the work he is doing for our students and community.

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